[loose_tongue]

how many/what sort of effects do you use.

the bass player in my band has just informed me that for xmas he has got a couple of new pedals. so we're now looking at him having, and he will use them all, possibly getting close to using them all at once, distortion, chorus,flange,bass synth(thats a new once)eq and wah. now granted using effects can be cool and something new but sometimes i feel like it takes the feel away from the bass, and it aint a bass wah, its a guitar wah so when he uses it the bottom end falls out, and this guy is like the kirk hammett of bass, he's never off the thing.

so do i let him go, or do i need to reel him in before it gets even more out of hand?

[GoDrex]

That's pretty funny. Sounds to me like he really would rather be a guitar player. It's not easy being a bass player and being in the background. Anyway, effects can have their place but he needs to get the idea to use them sparingly.

[loose_tongue]

i think even if a guitar player was using as many effects as him it would still be over the top. any time there is a bass break he'll either step on the wah or the flanger, and thats with the chorus and distortion already on! he says he's bought the syth pedal to give him some variety. surely not using it can be a variety aswell? lol

[GoDrex]

i think even if a guitar player was using as many effects as him it would still be over the top.

any time there is a bass break he'll either step on the wah or the flanger, and thats with the chorus and distortion already on!

Oh I agree, you have to be careful with the effects. I usually start with an effect on my amp and then I usually lower the level of it until it's just adding a bit of flavor instead of taking over the sound. I think you'll have to gang up on him and explain that it's not helping his sound.

I would really like to hear what this is like.

[junior01]

It is very, very easy to overdo with bass effect. The key word is parsimoniously (thank you spell checker ). He'll have to remember the role of the bass player within the band also 'cause the way you describe him it is really sounding like he would rather play the guitar as GoDrex said.

Sure a little bit of effect can do a lot to improve a song but it has to be done with taste and ultimatly the goal os to help the song and it should never be used to promote the player. In my view, with many effects (especially if they are all on at the same time) anybody can pose as a good player. The sad thing is that most of the times they sound horrible.

So yes reel him up, clean him and fry him

[loose_tongue]

i think even if a guitar player was using as many effects as him it would still be over the top.

any time there is a bass break he'll either step on the wah or the flanger, and thats with the chorus and distortion already on!

Oh I agree, you have to be careful with the effects. I usually start with an effect on my amp and then I usually lower the level of it until it's just adding a bit of flavor instead of taking over the sound. I think you'll have to gang up on him and explain that it's not helping his sound.

I would really like to hear what this is like.

ill need to look out some recordings and try find a good example.

It is very, very easy to overdo with bass effect. The key word is parsimoniously (thank you spell checker ). He'll have to remember the role of the bass player within the band also 'cause the way you describe him it is really sounding like he would rather play the guitar as GoDrex said.

Sure a little bit of effect can do a lot to improve a song but it has to be done with taste and ultimatly the goal os to help the song and it should never be used to promote the player. In my view, with many effects (especially if they are all on at the same time) anybody can pose as a good player. The sad thing is that most of the times they sound horrible.

So yes reel him up, clean him and fry him

he aint been playing that long, well i say that its probably a couple of years now, but i think he probably does hide behind his effects a bit. and i remember him saying something along the lines of he's sick of bass taking a back seat and was going to put it to the fore front.

sometimes when i listen to him the distortion and chorus aint that bad together, its the damn flange and wah that annoys me. and now hes got a bass synth. im really dreading to hear how this is gonna go.

do you guys use any effects?

[junior01]

Rarely. In fact i do not own any effects per se. The only times i may get some effects is in post-production where we may add a bit of chorus. But most of the times it is an EQ thing in order to change the sound. Technique is also important. Different hand technique will produce different sound.

[GoDrex]

I'm not a bass player, but I do know from experience that a little compression can be a very good "effect" for bass. Doesn't really change the sound a lot, but it can even it out and keep levels consistant. Also a little chorus can be nice sometimes.

[igorski]

The only thing necessary for a bass sound is EQ and compression which I don't really see as effects, but part of production.

However envelope filters are my guilty pleasure, squeeaaaalch.

[randallflagg]

Just to add my $.02 as well........

Bass "effects", at least to me, are a huge waste of time (and) money. The only "effect" I use on a constant basis is a compressor in my rack, although I have (on occasion) used a WEE bit of chorus (let me stress the word WEE!)

Back in the early 80s I tried a deal called "bass balls"....it was a cute little novelty, but just that - a novelty.

We (bass players) sometimes are guilty of trying too hard to pass ourselves off as "guitarists"......I am not. I play bass. I TOLERATE my guitar player. period. The onlly reason HE is around is because he has a van.....




RF

[Siege of Troy]

In the metal band I play in, we kind of have a rule about effects. No more than 3-4 pedals on the floor per person, and they must be essential to the needs of the songs we're playing or the tone of the players. The setup was kinda like this at the last practice.

Lead Singer: No effects
Drummer: No effects
Bass: Chorus, Flange, EQ
Lead guitar (me): Distortion, Chorus, Wah, Noise Reducer (sometimes I cheat and just use my digitech effect board for distortion and wah, but rarely anymore)
Rhythm guitar: Distortion, Wah, chorus

It's not really a set rule, but we like to keep the sound as original as possible, and keep floorspace at it's maximum while keeping cords at their minimum. The Bassist is a sucker for effects, so we sometimes let him loose for a few minutes and let him have fun, but he keeps himself in check when it comes to practicing and performing actual songs...

[caprico]

too much effects for bass sound funny.... bass is best played clean.. maybe a compressor and/or a chorus.
its all in the fingers..

[ninjato]

He needs to take a look at Victor Wooten and Steve Bailey

http://quicksilversc...tch?video=16747

What even more important is the little interviews and rap sessins about how they approached each song.

[fenderguitarfreak]

If their is any feeling inside you that thinks he is going over board then let him know. He'll start to cut it down a bit, don't worry.

[builtmyownbass]

Theres nothing wrong with EQ, or a small amount of chorus, but a flanger, wah, etc. (more noticable) Effects should be used for specific purposes and not be part of the actual 'bassline' of the piece. (e.g. limit to fills, intros, other little effects and passages in the song).
So for example, in the chorus which may be louder, the bass effects should be kept to a minumum to reinforce the actual bassline of the piece. When the bassline is not needed as much, then the bassist could have a little fun with a wah, even playing along the melody for no more than a few bars with an interesting effect.

I use a Digitech BP80 with a couple of different amp modelings for different pieces (e.g. for older pieces, I may want a classic Bassman sound, wheras in other pieces I will select something brighter or more compressed). I've actually forgotten about chorus, phaser, etc. for my bass playing in the band... I might do a bit of experimentation next week.

The last few weeks, I've brought my stack to practices - and the difference is amazing. The whole band is held together now (I used to use a 35W combo). Everybody noticed how much difference it made. Now I can add a few effects without compromising the low frequencies...

[Brownetown]

I think if you're unhappy with his effects as a band it makes perfect sense to raise it with him and tell him you're not happy.

In terms of what effects bass should have, I think it all depends on the overall sound of the band. A local band, that happen to be one of my favourites, use an awful lot of effects, bassist included. If he were with any other band it would sound out of place, but in the context of this particular group I think it works very well.

Recently I've been yearning for a good distortion pedal so I can try to rip off Death From Above 1979.

[ravaging]

it really depends on what kind of music you play. i use a distortion and a chorus, i'll probably buy a delay pedal of some sort soon as well (i play a lot of two hand tapping stuff on my own, not within my band). i play hard rock/psychadelic rock, and tossing on a couple effects at a time can liven up the song, but it's never something i rely on.

you probably haven't heard of these guys, but the band These Arms Are Snakes (seattle band, not really sure how to classify their kind of rock, look 'em up) uses effects to their advantage. their bassist plays a bass and a synth, and uses a ton of effects. he writes some really cool bass lines, but when you see them live, you see how much skill it takes to use the effects as well as he does.

effects are something your bassist should be using to add to the song, not to just make himself look cool. if he wants to put bass at the front, that's cool, too, but if he can't play well enough to do it successfully, he's just making the whole band look bad. this is kind of an old thread, but if you read this, let us know how things go, whether you guys convinced him to back off the effects or if you just let it slide.

[guitarguy33]

it really depends on what kind of music you play. i use a distortion and a chorus, i'll probably buy a delay pedal of some sort soon as well (i play a lot of two hand tapping stuff on my own, not within my band). i play hard rock/psychadelic rock, and tossing on a couple effects at a time can liven up the song, but it's never something i rely on.

you probably haven't heard of these guys, but the band These Arms Are Snakes (seattle band, not really sure how to classify their kind of rock, look 'em up) uses effects to their advantage. their bassist plays a bass and a synth, and uses a ton of effects. he writes some really cool bass lines, but when you see them live, you see how much skill it takes to use the effects as well as he does.

effects are something your bassist should be using to add to the song, not to just make himself look cool. if he wants to put bass at the front, that's cool, too, but if he can't play well enough to do it successfully, he's just making the whole band look bad. this is kind of an old thread, but if you read this, let us know how things go, whether you guys convinced him to back off the effects or if you just let it slide.

They have a good bass player. He plays with Russian Circles too.

[HardRockStar]

I have always been anti-effects for bass as a rule. They usually just makes the overall mix sound muddy. It's tough to remain totally abstinent though when you see all the cool kids playing with their shiny gizmos.

Rules were meant to be broken.

Lately I've been gigging with two pedals just because I... (insert long list of justifications) and I found a pedal that is useful and sounds cool. Along with my Boss "Bass Synthesizer" that I've had in my bag for years I recently acquired a Boss Octaver.

A lot of tunes go lower than my four string will allow and I refuse to use a 5 string. I played a Yamaha 5 string for a year when they first became popular and I found myself avoiding the low string cause it felt & sounded dead to me. So this pedal was gonna give me the extra range.

It sounds really cool in a variety of applications and I started realizing that the sound is used all the time on records by the likes of Rage Against the Machine. It does't track well when you play lower than "C" (third fret on the A string) though.

I see that Boss makes one for bass specifically. I've not tried it. Mine is vintage I'm told. I guess they call them "Super Octave" now or something.

Anyway I guess my point is the right pedal is worth breaking the rule for if it adds to the musicality as opposed to "subtracts from the mix" as many pedals do.
-and all for the sake of having buttons to push like all the cool kids.

So I just need that one pedal . And that's all I need ....and my "Bass Synthesizer" pedal. And that's all I need too! ...

....I need my Big Muff!!!

As far as distortion for bass I've never heard it sound good live but it has been used to good effect on many recordings. Check out Shotgun Messiah's "Second Coming". I got a chance to talk to those guys. They ran the bass through a Marshall Stack using an Eventide harmonizer on the record but on the gig it was straight into an SVT all the way. I don't have the effects chain details for the recording but WOW, this is the holy grail of Bass overdrive.


Give you're boy a chance. If it sounds crappy tell him. It's not like you're insulting his mother or something.

This post has been edited by HardRockStar: 11 July 2008 - 10:10 PM